The court tasked the Ministry of Interior and Macedonian Telecommunications to pay 350.000 denars each to journalists.

The journalists were displeased with the remedy and said they would appeal court's ruling.

The court found that Interior Ministry and Telecom are in possession of eavesdropping equipment. The court also found that wiretapping did take place and it was at the expense of journalists. A total of five judges run the seven-year-long trial.

Meanwhile, the journalists brought the case to the Strasbourg-based Court of Human Rights, complaining of unreasonably lengthy proceedings in the national court.

The wiretapping scandal, known as Big Ear, broke in 2000, when the then opposition leader Branko Crvenkovski unearthed transcripts of wiretapped phone conversations of politicians, journalists and diplomats.